Scott Hastings hopeful Scotland can perform in Six Nations
By Lewis Anderson
With the 2016 RBS Six Nations just around the corner the Scotland National Team are making their final preparations for this year’s tournament. Ex-Scotland Internationalist Scott Hastings is hopeful that the current squad can maintain their recent good form and get off to a winning start over the ‘Auld Enemy’.
The annual tournament played out over a six week period will see Scotland, England, Wales, France, Ireland and Italy prepare to do battle as they seek to claim the coveted trophy in what will be the 122nd edition of the event.
The last two campaigns have been highly unsuccessful from a Scottish perspective, especially last year having failed to win a game and pick up the ‘Wooden Spoon’ despite optimism in the camp. However, last summer’s Rugby World Cup proved to be a step in the right direction as they made it to the Quarter Final stage, only to be harshly defeated by 34 points to 32 against Australia.
Hastings, who won 65 caps for the Scots, has been involved in some titanic tussles with England over his 11-year international career and believes that if the current team are to achieve anything in the tournament, they must cut out the errors and play to a consistent level.
“First and foremost, it’s all about consistency,” he said.
“If you look back to the hard facts of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, Scotland beat Japan, Samoa and got a good win against USA in the group stages. We didn’t beat a tier one nation – they’re all tier two – and we were narrowly beaten by Australia in the Quarter Finals.
“However, if you read below the results, you can see that there was a consistency and an improvement in our performance. For Scotland to gain success in this upcoming Six Nations Championship they must eliminate the mistakes and play to that high-tempo level of rugby to drive them forward. If they don’t at Six Nations level, they can get found out quickly.”
With the squad currently taking part in a training camp based in St Andrews this week, Hastings admitted he wasn’t too surprised by Head Coach Vern Cotter’s team announcement for the tournament and was delighted to see the uncapped duo of Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) and Rory Sutherland (Edinburgh) amongst the squad.
“There were no surprises in my opinion,” stated Hastings.
“Zander is an exciting prospect and is a very good prop forward. I was commentating on the World Under-20s Championships in Italy last year and Fagerson was without doubt one of the top scrumagers. The Edinburgh prop has done really well and Rory can hold his own. He was called into last year’s Rugby World Cup squad by Vern Cotter for the last game and Sutherland knows that he’s a class performer. What he brings to his game is a terrific work ethic around the park and in the scrum/lineout – he’s a deep ball carrier.
“What I like about Vern Cotter is that he’s awarded players who are on form and if both players can kick on and win their first Six Nations caps, it would be a wonderful testament to that selection policy.”
The Scots face a very difficult start to the tournament. England are the visitors to Murrayfield Stadium next weekend before a trip down to Cardiff to face a gritty Welsh side the following week and Hastings feels Scotland must get off to a positive start.
“It’s going to be a really tough start,” he said.
“Eddie Jones, who coached Japan in last year’s World Cup, is obviously the new England Head Coach and he brings with him a wealth of experience. Within his squad, he’s also gone for players in good form and has turfed out the players who haven’t quite performed at the highest level.
“For Scotland to get involved in this year’s Six Nations they must get off to a winning start. If they don’t then they face a very difficult trip down to the Millennium Stadium to face Wales and before you know it, we could be looking at us after two games with two defeats – it’s that tight!”
The former Watsonians man, who was twice involved with the British & Irish Lions squad, believes Scotland will have to work out a way in which they can break teams down and fears a lack of experience amongst the current crop of players could count against them.
He said: “Undoubtedly you’re looking at the English and Welsh teams on paper and there is a little more winning experience in their ranks. If you consider how Wales rallied to beat England in the Group Stages of the World Cup nobody forecast that result, but Warren Gatland is a superb coach.
“Scotland are really going to be under a lot of pressure, but they’ve got to work out a game-plan that’s going to get them points on the board and get them playing that confident, attacking style of rugby. If they don’t, as I said, they could end up after two games very much on the back foot.”
Since his retirement from the sport in 2000 after a lucrative playing career, Hastings admitted how much the game has changed over the last decade.
“It’s been massive. The Scotland that I used to play for was deferential; the pace we played the game, the thinking on our feet and our dynamic rucking. When you consider you cannot ruck in the game of rugby at this moment in time then that goes to show one aspect of how the sport has changed.
“Also, the physical aspect is massive now. The work of all these international teams, their defensive work rate in the tackle and in and around the contact area is a transformation that not even I could imagine when I first started playing rugby for Scotland.”
Scott, who is the younger brother of Scotland great Gavin Hastings, pinpointed various players he felt will be of upmost importance for Vern Cotter’s team in the upcoming tournament.
“John Hardie will be winning his sixth cap for Scotland, the first Six Nations he will have played on Scottish soil. When he was first brought into the squad the only one way he could do his talking was on the field of play and undoubtedly he’s enhanced his performance in that sense. He’s a standout player because he’s all about winning the ball in the contact area and he’s been in great form for his Club (Edinburgh) in recent weeks.
“The Gray brothers are a formidable pairing in the second row and Ross Ford who is in a rich vein of form in his international career are others to note. He could top 100 caps this season.
However, Hastings confessed the most important players for him are the half-backs.
“In Greig Laidlaw, who was outstanding in the World Cup, we have a player who will aim to kick on and really inspire this current Scotland team to great success. Outside him, the way Finn Russell controls the game will be very important with his intelligent kicking game.
“The outside backs, Stuart Hogg and Tommy Seymour for example, can really have a go at opposition backs. Mark Bennett is also an outstanding young centre and there’s no point having that talent unless you can unearth it and find ways of getting him to break up defences. It’s all about the quality of the ball the forwards bring, but also the way the half-backs will dictate not only the pace of the game but also the control of the game.”
With the countdown to next weekend already in full swing, here’s hoping that Scotland can give us a good run for our money this year!
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